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Jafar
“''In the palace, right here, lived a wicked vizier; the advisor to Sultan Hamed. And this part-time magician, this amateur seer, wished his boss, the good sultan, dead. He was charming and slick, but unspeakably sick, this despicable parasite. What a villain, boo hiss! Further proof, dears, that this is another Arabian night...” ―Lyrics from a demo of "Arabian Nights" '''Jafar' was the main antagonist in Disney's 1992 animated feature film Aladdin and its 1994 direct-to-video sequel. He was the Royal Vizier of Agrabah. He is voiced by Jonathan Freeman and is also a primary member of the Disney Villains franchise. Background Personality Jafar was portrayed as an amoral psychopath who'll not hesitate to destroy anyone he perceives as a threat to his own sinister designs. Like numerous clinically-diagnosed psychopaths, Jafar wears a metaphorical mask of normalcy throughout the film, establishing himself as a cool-headed schemer and gaining the trust of those around him, despite his rather untrustworthy physical appearance. Even with this mask, Jafar's psychopathic tendencies tend to seep through and become apparent to the viewer, particularly in the opening sequence, where Jafar, outside of immediate initial anger over Gazeem not being the one who is the Diamond in the Rough and thus being killed, displays no remorse in sending Gazeem the thief to his death in the Cave of Wonders, simply proclaiming that "Gazeem was obviously less than worthy" in a rather dry tone of voice. The deleted song "Humiliate the Boy" also establishes Jafar as an emotional sadist, getting a laugh out of seeing "another fellow's dreams turn into nightmares one by one" and treating the Genie in an especially harsh manner. In addition, in Return of Jafar, Jafar, outside of using loopholes to bypass the ban on Genies killing people via having Abis Mal arrange Aladdin's murder for him or using the environment to have death become an inevitability during the final battle, was proven to not mind the Genies can't kill rule because "you'd be surprised at what you can live through," implying that he could torture people to the fullest extent without killing them. Jafar also displays narcissistic tendencies, his most obvious ones being his obsessive desire for power and sense of entitlement, as well as manipulating the Sultan to achieve his goals. It is not until Jafar gains control of the Genie's lamp that he fully shows his true colors, becoming arrogant and short-tempered with his subjects after usurping power from the Sultan. He also was depicted as laughing excessively and in a deranged manner shortly after banishing Aladdin to the North Pole as well as when he was revived by Hades when undergoing a fit that resulted in severe damage to the Underworld, suggesting that Jafar was also insane and suffered from hysteria. It is this impulsive behavior that leads to his downfall, as he uses his third wish to become an omnipotent genie, unaware of the life inside the lamp that he now has to endure. At the start Jafar is a somewhat shadowy character as his face is seen in the shadows during the beginning with Gazeem. Jafar can have a somewhat comical edge that helps to add some humanity to his character, for example proclaiming "Ewww..." when contemplating decapitation, a trait unusual in a Disney villain. Furthermore Jafar has a sense of humor himself, spurting several puns in a row while keeping Aladdin and his friends from getting the lamp during the film's climax ("Your time is up!", "Don't toy with me!", "Things are unraveling fast now, boy!", "Get the point?", "I'm just getting warmed up!"), as pointed out by Hades in Hercules and the Arabian Nights. This sense of humor does not carry over in the film's direct-to-video sequel, which aimed to make Jafar more sinister and ruthless. He also was somewhat abusive towards his minions, as evidenced by his interactions with Iago and, later, Abis Mal. Ultimately, this proves to be his final downfall, as Iago ends up turning against him twice in large part because of his abuse and not giving them credit when it is due, and Abis Mal (albeit unintentionally) ended up buying enough time for Aladdin and his allies to try to steal Jafar's lamp when he stopped mid-wish for Jafar to be freed the lamp to ask Jafar whether he was going to actually allow him to keep the treasure, after he endured some abuse regarding his wishes, and thus result in Jafar's lamp being destroyed, and thus Jafar's death. Like some villain characters from other franchises, Jafar is attracted to a beautiful girl or woman that is a protagonist. Here, he's attracted to Princess Jasmine, but primarily for her good looking body, and not for Jasmine herself as a person. His final wish was initially for Jasmine to fall desperately in love with him so he could make her his queen (he and Iago originally planned on killing her as soon as he became Sultan, but at some time later he refused to kill her, instead sparing her life); he first creates a golden crown for her from her shackles to do so with a wave of his hand, saying that a girl as beautiful as her "should be on the arm of the most powerful man in the world". Genie couldn't grant this wish, but after she's spotted Aladdin and Abu above Jafar and the Genie in a balcony, Jasmine then got the idea to pretend to do so, and she and Jafar have shared both their first kiss together on the lips, in the order for Jasmine to distract Jafar's attention from Aladdin as he tried to get the lamp back. (Much earlier, though, he says in what we would consider to be a sexist manner that Jasmine's speechlessness is "a fine quality in a wife"). Deleted scenes for the original film implied that most of his negative traits and motives stemmed from having to grow up impoverished and bullied on by the populace of Agrabah, making him almost similar to Aladdin, although their similarities differed in how they handled their suffering.